Hey there,
I was a total beginner 5-6 doses ago too, so I may sound dumb compared to other members!
My impression was that the addition of acid was so that the washes could hold more extracted alkaloids, not to pre-treat the caapi for extraction. I could be wrong though.
I have heard that a pre-treatment for caapi is to stick it in the freezer to 'bust the cell walls'. I didn't try that myself yet.
I found that the 3x3 simmers of caapi were less powerful than a THP (The Herbal Percolator) extraction. For example I took 100g caapi from a 3x3 boil, but 50g extracted via THP seems entirely equal in strength. If I took 100g from a THP I reckon I'd be paralyzed.
The THP extraction is faster too, if that is desirable for you. You extract the alkaloids into a lot of acidified water (although I understand that because of the volume of water used, one may not even need acid - but didn't try un-acidified water yet, so I don't know), and that bit is quick. But then you have a lot of water to reduce. But the total time is substantially less than 9h.
I do my 'light' (in my case chaliponga normally) with the THP too. Just use less water.
For caapi I did 8L for 50g (160ml:g) and for the chali it was 4L for 10g.
Links:
1)
The Herbal Percolator2)
My first experience using a THPA 20 minute window between strength (caapi) and light (chakruna) ended up working well for me, but I understand folks differ quite a lot. Somebody advised me to wait 45m (didn't try) and obviously in some ceremonies it's all mixed together.
Best of luck!
All posts are made on behalf of, or referring-to, a paranoid internet buddy who does not wish to post on this forum directly. He or she reads the forum and tells me what to respond. I sometimes paste his or her communications in verbatim to save time (and therefore these posts naturally use 'I', 'me' and so on). Other times I write as myself and refer to my buddy's exploits explicitly ('my friend', and so on). I do not know my buddy's real name or location, we met on another forum. I am basically a member of this site as a human proxy for an anonymous other.